The women’s soccer team had a hard day on Saturday, October 27. Their season ended in the last conference game against Hastings. This game was especially difficult for the seniors as it was time to finally say goodbye to the game they love.
The class of 2019 was the largest class to come into the women’s soccer program with 16 girls. This group brought a new level of competition to the program. Despite the ups and downs of wins and losses, the senior class was able to have fun every season and see the bigger picture of what it means to be part of a team. It seems that this was primarily due to the uniqueness of each senior.
The women had a wide range of personalities and abilities that led to a more unified program and cohesion within the team.
“This senior class got along better than any other group before. I think that is due to our ability to see the bigger picture of athletics,” said senior captain Jessi Carver.
The senior class continually encouraged the team to look past mere wins and losses and to see what bigger lessons they could learn from the beautiful game.
It is uncommon for a program to accept each member as they are, but this team did it well.
Throughout the last four years, small moments of laughing through the quirkiness of each person added up a team dynamic that accepts people where they are. Whether those were moments of breaking out into song and dance when “High School Musical” came on, crazy goal celebrations or yelling “make ‘em your mommy” on the sidelines, no one questioned each other and everyone would join in. By joining in on these weird, yet memorable moments, the players showed support for each other.
Senior captain Sabrina Tarchione described the team dynamic similarly. “I feel like we feed off each other well. We are supportive and bring out the best in each other.” This is what led to success for the Raiders on and off the field.
Senior memories from the last four years include annual trips to Los Tulipanes to invest in each other outside of soccer, going crazy during the pre-game dance parties to “Fergalicious” and starting a team bonding tradition with senior Mariah Kleinwolterink’s puppies.
As this stage of the senior girls’ life ends, they look back on the memories made during their time as NW women’s soccer players. I think the other seniors would agree with Andy Bernard from The Office when he said, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”
